Move through Markdown, comfortably.

A lightweight Mac-only viewer that reads Markdown, Mermaid and source code without slowing down.

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. There is no Windows or Linux version.

For people who write code

Claude designs. I review in befold.

I built befold to review the piles of documents that Claude Code and Codex generate.
Editing was deliberately left out — befold is a tool built purely for reading. It supports Quick Look, too.

For people who read Markdown

You don't have to be technical to read it.

Just open the file. Nothing to learn, nothing to configure beforehand.
It renders with the same look as GitHub, and Mermaid code blocks are drawn as diagrams.
When an LLM updates the file, the view catches up in 0.2 seconds.

Mermaid

SVG

Markdown

CSV

Source Code

Quick Open

Git Diff

Git Status

Features

Quick Open (⌘P)

Fuzzy-search filenames to jump straight to a file. An empty query lists recents and bookmarks, and ./ or ../ path input works too

Sidebar & Swipe

Open the sidebar with ⌘S to walk folders and filter by name. Move between files you have read with ⌘[ / ⌘] or a two-finger trackpad swipe

Open from the CLI

befold path/... opens several files at once. Display flags like --sidebar, --source and --line-numbers, plus --check to verify a file opens and --bookmark

Live Reload

Every change from an external editor or an AI lands in the preview instantly — including files recreated on save, renames and moves

Git Diff View

Read what your branch changes — committed work included — as a source diff. Switch rendered / source / diff with ⌘1 / ⌘2 / ⌘3, flip the diff layout between stacked and side by side with ⌘\. The view mode is remembered per file

A Sidebar That Knows Your Changes

Changed files carry a one-letter colored badge, and folders roll up the changes beneath them. Staged, unstaged, untracked and committed-on-branch are told apart, and ⌃⌘G narrows the list to changed files only

Large Files, Too

Markdown, CSV/TSV and source code load in chunks, so files up to 100MB open without a wait. Pull in the rest with “Load More”

QuickLook Support

Ships a QuickLook extension. Select a file in Finder and hit space to see Mermaid or Markdown rendered — no need to open the app

Git-Aware Link Resolution — Only paths that really exist become links. When a relative path misses, befold finds the file among git-tracked ones — and keeps up when you switch worktrees or branches
Recent Repositories — Reopen a recently used repository from the File menu, tabs and all. Worktrees are grouped under their main repository
Wide Format Support — Renders .mmd, .md, .svg, .html, .csv, .tsv — plus displays .png, .jpg, .gif, .webp, .pdf, and source code in 50+ languages. Detects UTF-8/16/32, Shift_JIS and EUC-JP automatically
Rendered / Source Toggle — Switch between rendered and source view with ⌘U. Source view has syntax highlighting and line numbers via ⌘L. Find (⌘F) supports regex, case and whole-word matching
Tabs & Session Restore — Native macOS tabs. Your previous tab layout is restored on next launch, and zoom, view mode and scroll position are remembered per file
Zoom & Dark Mode — Zoom with ⌘+/⌘-/⌘0. Follows macOS dark mode automatically, and the source-view font is configurable in Settings
In-App Updates — Notifies when a new version is available. One-click update

befold